KYIV, Ukraine, March  27, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Russian attacks on eastern and 
southern Ukraine killed at least three people on Wednesday, officials said, as 
Kyiv called for more Patriot air defence systems to battle a surge in missile 
strikes.

       Moscow has escalated aerial attacks on Ukraine in the past few weeks, 
targeting key infrastructure -- including power stations -- in retaliation for 
fatal bombardments of Russia's border regions.

       In Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, which has been reeling from power 
outages due to the strikes, officials said aerial bombing and shelling killed 
at least one person and injured 18 others.

       "Four children are among the wounded. Apartment buildings were damaged. The 
number of victims may increase," the region's governor Oleg Sinegubov said.

       President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine's allies to speed up deliveries 
of warplanes and air defence systems following the strike.

       "Bolstering Ukraine's air defence and expediting the delivery of F-16s to 
Ukraine are vital tasks," he said in a statement on social media. 

       "There are no rational explanations for why Patriots, which are plentiful 
around the world, are still not covering the skies of Kharkiv and other 
cities," he added.

       The governor of Ukraine's southern Kherson region, which is partially 
occupied by Russia, said one woman had been killed in a drone attack on the 
village of Mykhailivka.

       "A 61-year-old local resident was fatally wounded in her own home," the 
official, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media.

       And in the southeastern city of Nikopol, officials said artillery fire 
killed a 55-year-old man, while a ballistic missile strike on the coastal 
territory of Mykolaiv left eight wounded.

       
       - 'Little time' -

       
       The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 13 Iranian-designed attack 
drones overnight and that 10 were downed over the Kharkiv region, the 
neighbouring Sumy region and near the capital Kyiv.

       During an online briefing on Wednesday, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro 
Kuleba called again for urgent deliveries of Western air defence systems he 
said were crucial in warding off the increase in attacks.

       "The peculiarity of the current Russian attacks is the intensive use of 
ballistic missiles that can reach targets at extremely high speeds, leaving 
little time for people to take cover and causing significant destruction," 
Kuleba said.

       "Patriot and other similar systems are defensive by definition. They are 
designed to protect lives, not take them," he said.

       Zelensky meanwhile was in the northeastern Sumy region bordering Russia, 
where he met with soldiers recovering from injuries and visited newly built 
defence lines.

       "I inspected trenches, dugouts, firing and command and observation posts," 
Zelensky wrote in a social media post. 

       "We are strengthening our defences," he said.

       Ukraine has been forced onto a defensive footing in the past few months as 
it struggles with ammunition shortages amid delays to a $60 billion aid package 
from Washington.

       Its ground forces commander warned last week Russia was gathering more than 
100,000 soldiers in advance of what may be a major offensive this summer, as 
Moscow seeks to press its advantage on the battlefield.

       Russia meanwhile announced that its air defence systems had shot down 18 
rockets near the border city of Belgorod, which has been regularly targeted by 
fatal Ukrainian attacks.

       The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said two 
people were wounded during the barrage and later drone attack.